It's the best of all worlds, looking out of our world this month. March stargazing is fantastic because you still have Orion and all of the great constellations of winter, but on most nights, the chill of winter has eased a bit. In fact, spring begins, at least astronomically, at 1:14 a.m. March 20.
Venus and Jupiter are really putting on a great show lately in the southwestern sky that will culminate on March 13. The two brightest planets visible in our heavens are in a really close and beautiful tango, and even folks who aren't all that interested in stargazing are taking notice. I've taken many phone calls and received all kinds of email asking me "what are those two bright stars in the southwestern sky?" A couple of people even suggested UFO's.
Oh, if I had a quarter for every time I heard someone tell me they're seeing a UFO.
What you're seeing are two very different planets that are nearly in the same line of sight. Venus, the brighter of the two, is only about 84 million miles from Earth and is nearly the same size as our world, about 8,000 miles in diameter. That's where the similarity ends. Venus is a very hot and oppressive place with surface temperatures that can exceed 800 degrees F, enough to melt lead and burn a lot of pizzas. The reason Venus's surface is so warm is that it's overwhelmed by a thick, opaque and poisonous carbon dioxide atmosphere complete with acid rain that traps the heat it receives from the sun.
That same thick cloud cover is reflective, which makes Venus so bright in our night sky. Despite being such a bright shiner, I think Venus is pretty boring through a telescope. The one cool thing about telescoping Venus is that, just like our moon, it goes through phase changes as it orbits the sun. Otherwise, it's just a bright white light.
Currently, Venus is oval in shape like a gibbous moon.
Jupiter, on the other hand, is 88,000 miles in diameter, well over 11 times the diameter of the Earth. It's also a heck of a lot farther from Earth at more than 500 million miles away. Jupiter's brilliance in the sky is due to its humongous dimensions. Check out its four brighter moons and even some of its cloud bands.
Other stars
The grand winter constellation Orion the Hunter and his gang of other bright stars and planets continue to light up the southern heavens. "Orion and his gang" include the constellations Taurus the bull; Auriga the chariot driver turned goat farmer; the big and little dogs Canis Major and Minor; Gemini the Twins and of course, Orion the hunter, with his three perfectly aligned belt stars.
In the north sky, the Big Dipper is standing up on its handle. The fainter Little Dipper is off to the left hanging by its handle. The brightest star, Polaris, otherwise known as the North Star, shines at the end of the Little Dipper's handle. Polaris is the "Lynch Pin" of the sky. All of the stars appear to circle around the North Star every 24 hours since it shines directly above the Earth's North Pole.
Cassiopeia
Over in the northwest sky, look for the bright sideways "W" that is supposed to be the outline of Queen Cassiopeia tied up in her throne. According to legend, Hera, queen of the Greek gods, was angry with Cassiopeia for boasting that she was even more beautiful than Hera. The queen of the gods of Mount Olympus tied her up in a throne and cast her up into the heavens, where to this day and night, she continues her endless circle around Polaris.
Leo the Lion
Over in the east, look for a distinctive backward question mark that outlines the chest and head of Leo the Lion, the first of the springtime constellations. Regulus is the moderately bright star at the bottom of the question mark that sits at Leo's heart. As March continues, Leo will get higher and higher in the sky in the early evening, while the stars of Orion and his gang sink lower and lower in the west.
Leo the Lion has a celestial guest this year, the planet Mars. Just look to the lower left of the backward question mark that outlines the head of Leo, and you'll see a moderately bright star that's distinctively the brightest in that part of the night sky. You also know you're seeing our Martian neighbor because of its bright reddish tint. Mars is so bright right now because it's only 63 million miles from Earth. This is the closest Earth and Mars have been to each other in two years because they travel at varying speeds in their respective orbits.
I'll have much more on Mars in next week's Starwatch.
Again, I want to remind you that especially this time of year, you should make sure your telescope and all of the eyepieces sit outside and acclimate for at least half an hour before you use them. It can make all the difference in how clearly you see things. Also, the longer you look through the eyepiece, the more detail you'll see.
(Lynch is an amateur astronomer and author of the book, "Pennsylvania Starwatch.")